A Curious Happenstance
by XxForeverAutumnxX
Summary: Severus finds a black cat alone in the woods on the edge of death.


***Disclaimer: All rights belong to JK Rowling.***

Severus walked with determined strides towards Hogsmeade. That swindling swine of an Apoth had shorted him on his last order of moonstone by no less than four ounces. After noticing this, he examined the rest of the purchases from the previous weekend. His lacewing flies had not been properly dried or stored. The whole lot had to be tossed, the tiny insect carcass had gone soft and were in the begining stages of rot and decay.

He continued to seethe, working himself into a proper temper. How dare that pudgy-faced, slack-jawed lack-wit! No one would make a fool of him. He was a regular customer and Hogwarts' generous purse was likely the sole reason McLeary was still in business. He would be damned if he allowed that cretin to make a mockery of him.

Severus hated the though that if he hadn't been needing that exact amount of moonstone for a specific purpose that he might have never even noticed that the man had used weighted scales. It was the oldest trick in the book by apoth and grocer alike. Disinclined to believing that he had been duped, Severus weighed the moonstone on three separate scales before leaving the grounds in search of retribution.

A grey sky and frigid drizzle enveloped the small village of Hogsmeade. Since the Dementors had taken up post around the school and surrounding area the landscape had begun to change. It was October 20th, but the usual warmth that still lingered was gone. An untimely winter had been thrust upon them. Oh... how he hoped that he would be the one to find Black. That disgusting cowardly dog. Then maybe they could be rid of these damned dementors after they sucked the life and soul from Black's tainted mouth...

A jolt of agony rocked him for a moment as Lilly's pale face and slack body came to mind. The way she looked as though she could be sleeping... sleeping if not for the infant who wailed in his crib for his unresponsive mother. Sleeping if not for the infant who looked at him with large green eyes that begged him to take him away from that awful place. Severus couldn't have though, of course. How was he to know that Voldemort had truly been defeated?

With a low growl, he shook these thoughts away. It was no use to dwell on it now... it was just a matter of time before The Dark Lord made his presence known again... his Dark Mark had begun itch and burn. By itself, that wouldn't be such a suspicious thing. It was always uncomfortable. Now however, it felt as though the Mark was beginning to awaken. He could almost feel the magic brand slithering thee just under his skin.

A deep sense of self-loathing filled him. No matter how much he may wish to, he could never take back what he had done. This was much more than a brand on his skin;it was a stain on his soul.

All too soon the visage of the tacky little apothecary shop materialized from out of the pervasive fog. It was a rickity apparition in desperate need of repair with a crooked sign that simply declared in bold red letters "McLeary's Potions."

He threw the door open, startling the fat man behind the counter. His eyes widened in terror as the Potions Master decended upon him with his wand drawn.

"W-what is the meaning of this?!" The man stammered in a quivering voice. Severus sneered at him, setting down two identical jars with a frightening thump. One held the shimmering powdered moonstone and the other held the lacewing flies.

"I want these refunded and replaced. Now."

"What?" The man choked out, his piggish brown eyes widening impossibly.

Severus glowered down at him, his lip curling. "You have shorted me four ounces of moonstone and your lacewing flies are rotting. You have attempted to rob me and you have provided me with less than adequate ingredients. Have you any idea the devastation a rotted lacewing fly could cause in a potion if one of my students used these if I had simply trusted that your ingredients were properly stored?"

McLeary's face contorted with anger and he puffed out his chest with indignation. "THE HELL I HAVE!"

Severus calmly pressed the tip of his wand against the apoth's red and bulbus nose. "Don't. Lie. To. Me." He hissed, pressing a little harder with each word.

"Ah! There's no need for this violence..." McLeary pleaded, "I will replace your lacewing flies and give you a free pound of powdered moonstone... Will that be sufficient?"

Severus looked down his nose at him and withdrew his wand. The apoth let out a sigh of relief and scurried away to find his scales and moonstone when Severus stopped him. "You will forgive me when I ask that you use my scale, won't you... McLeary?"

His voice must have held just the right hint of threat. Just as the apoth opened his mouth it snapped shut again and he conceded with a nod, "Of course, of course." He added for good measure, a strained smile tightening his sallow face.

Severus slid a pale hand into his pocket and withdrew the scale that had been shrunk down to no more then the size of a galleon. He set it down on the counter and flicked his wand at it, not bothering to verbally cast such a simple charm. It returned to it's normal size in an instant.

The apoth set to measuring out the ingredients while Severus looked over the new jar of lacewing flies he had brought out from his store room. He examined them with cold black eyes, taking great care to sift through them with a pair of tweezers until he was satisfied with their quality.

Once his business at McLeary's was through, he began the chill and miserable trek back to Hogwarts. The late October air was devoid of its usual crispness, instead it was foggy and the feeling of despair hung like a wraith over Hogsmeade and all of the surrounding area. Not even Hogwarts herself was devoid of it. Severus hated the Dementors. They bothered him greatly... as they did to anyone who had true horrors locked inside them.

A strange sound, somewhere between a bird's chirp and a baby's cry snapped him out of his thoughts. Severus stilled, looking in the direction it came from. His boots carried him automatically just off of the path where he followed the sound to the base of an old yew tree, who evidently could be used to make a wand. Several perturbed bowtruckles shook their leaved fists at him upon his intrusion, their beadlike eyes nervously glancing down at the base of it's trunk. A small ball of black lay nestled in the fallen leaves at it's base and Severus realized it was nothing more than the mewling of a cat.

The black cat lifted it's head and regarded him with dark amber eyes and it mewled again, kicking it's hind legs pathetically. He looked down at it with little pity, even as it's strained movement revealed blood saturated leaves surounding it. It appeared to have been here for a long time. It cried out again, seeming to beseech him to do something about it's current state.

He deftly lifted it's hind leg to assess the damage. The cat only resisted a little, flattening it's ears against it's head.

_Female_. He noted at the apparent lack of testicles. His gentle examination revealed that she has a rather grievous slash across her belly.

"You're dying." He told her, "I don't believe I can do anything for you."

The cat twitched her whiskers at him, her amber eyes never wavering as he watched her.

He got up from where he had kneeled and turned away, having every intention to walk away and leave the unfortunate feline to her fate when it mewled again. He wasn't sure why, but he paused. Slowly he turned back to her and gather her in his arms, using his robes as a makeshift pack against her injuries. She hissed at him threateningly and swatted at him. He gripped the loose scruff at the back of her neck and looked the black cat in the eyes.

"No." He said firmly. The cat glowered at him but after a few more moments her hissing tapered off to a grumbling and then stopped all together.

Why was he doing this? He did not much care for the feline variety. Actually, he did not much care for animals at all. A familiar was a responsibility that had never appealed to him.

_Why not?_ He thought as Hogwarts loomed into view. It was just a cat. He did not have to keep her as a familiar. She weighed perhaps ten pounds and appeared full grown. Evidently the cat was not a stray by her appearance, regardless of her lack of collar. He could easily fix it up and send it on it's way back to her master. If nothing else, perhaps this act of kindness would serve to lessen the blows of his Death Eater days on his Karmatic record.

He looked down at the bundle in his arms. The cat still watched him wearily, her ears flat against her head. Her fur was true ebony, not a single white hair in sight with deep amber eyes.

She was a pretty cat, he thought. If cats could be thought of as pretty. Severus frowned at a student that gazed at him curiously and the girl ducked her head and hurried on her way. He ignored the next several glances of confusion from students on the way to his personal chambers and into his potions laboratory. He flicked away the protective enchantments and entered through a thick oak door.

Taking care as not to injure the feline further he placed her on the work bench still wrapped in his robes. It was black on black and only the animal's bright eyes could be seen. Her gaze swiveled around the room and settled on a rack of ingredients on the farthest corner. A strange noise issued from her throat and she gingerly rose out of the nest of fabric. Severus put a hand on her back to still her and then gave her a gentle push back into his robes.

"Stay where you are, cat." He told her, narrowing his eyes on it. "There are objects in this room that are both expensive and breakable. I'm afraid your hide would not be nearly enough to cover the expenses should they be broken."

The cat grumbled again at him and looked away, her tail thumping. Finally satisfied that the cat would stay put, Severus turned to the large mahogany

wood apothecary's chest. The drawers were of various sizes, precious ingredients and potions nestled within the confines. Along the top he kept several bottles and vials of potions he used the most. With a careful hand he plucked a blood replenishing potion up and scrutinized it in the light and then picked up a very small vial of dittany essence.

Luckily, this potion could be used on nearly any living creature. Save for Giants, of course, due to their surprisingly complicated physiology. He reached a hand out and laid the cat on her side, holding her sable front paws up and away with one hand while applying the dittany with the other. Her eyes became golden slits and she mewed in pain. Dittany did tend to burn quite a bit when applied to deep wounds.

He would need to reapply this dittany in roughly six hours to make certain that the wound did in fact heal. Next he moved his hand to the cat's mouth, separating her protesting jaws with his thumb and rudely shoving the lip of the bottle into her mouth. He began to pour the liquid and she glared at him as she swallowed. Once he was through he pulled his hands away. She should make a full recovery if she lived through the night. With that thought, he scorgified his robes and transfigured them into a black cushion.

"Well, cat. It looks like you will most likely survive after all... may you be more careful in the future. If I should happen upon you again, I will not mend you twice." He reached down and scratched her head. She grumbled in irritation but allowed it, snuggling down tighter on the cushion in the cold laboratory.

"Yes. It is cold..." Severus agreed. Being underneath the Black Lake had the unfortunate side effect of making the entire dungeon bitterly cold and damp at certain times of the year, an effect that seemed to have worsened due to their unfortunate "guardians" that loomed about.

He plucked the cat up, cushion and all and made his way to his private chambers where a hot fire roared in the grate. The cat looked around curiously at his simple yet comfortable chambers. He set her down in front of the fireplace and instructed a house elf to bring her warm milk to fill her belly before he settled down into his own bed.


End file.
